Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) Shares Sold by Great Lakes Advisors LLC

Great Lakes Advisors LLC decreased its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 241,198 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 6,002 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $45,934,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. Truvestments Capital LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 10,590 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,017,000 after purchasing an additional 1,275 shares during the last quarter. Austin Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Alphabet by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Austin Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,951 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,373,000 after purchasing an additional 236 shares during the last quarter. Hopwood Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in Alphabet in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $521,000. Hollencrest Capital Management increased its stake in Alphabet by 19.5% in the fourth quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management now owns 60,745 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,568,000 after purchasing an additional 9,916 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wilson Asset Management International PTY Ltd. increased its stake in Alphabet by 75.9% in the fourth quarter. Wilson Asset Management International PTY Ltd. now owns 102,527 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,525,000 after purchasing an additional 44,247 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on GOOG shares. Benchmark reiterated a “negative” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $220.00 price target on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Alphabet from $212.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.13.

Alphabet Stock Performance

NASDAQ:GOOG opened at $169.00 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $188.44 and its 200 day moving average price is $178.02. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $140.01 and a 1-year high of $208.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.84. The firm has a market cap of $2.06 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 1.03.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.03. Alphabet had a net margin of 28.60% and a return on equity of 32.49%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Alphabet

In other Alphabet news, insider John Kent Walker sold 16,820 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.62, for a total value of $3,239,868.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 43,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,471,620.22. This trade represents a 27.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 1,374 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $173.47, for a total value of $238,347.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 15,024 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,606,213.28. This trade represents a 8.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 95,682 shares of company stock valued at $17,901,024. 12.99% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Alphabet Profile

Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.